07 July 2005 :
Stephen Mobley, a man who shot a pizza store manager in the back of the head during a 1991 robbery, was executed in Georgia after courts rejected his last-minute appeals.Mobley, 39, was put to death by lethal injection at a state prison in Jackson, Georgia, 50 miles south of Atlanta. He died at 8 p.m. EST, Georgia Department of Corrections spokeswoman Peggy Chapman said.
The US Supreme Court had refused to block the execution.
"I appreciate the opportunity to atone for my sins," Mobley said before a sedative, a lung-paralyzing drug and deadly potassium chloride were injected into his arms.
Mobley, the son of a successful Georgia businessman, was sentenced to die for the February 18, 1991, murder of John Collins, the night manager at a Domino's Pizza store in Oakwood, Georgia, 45 miles northeast of Atlanta.
Collins, 24, had emptied the store's till without protest when ordered to do so. But Mobley forced him to his knees, made him beg for his life and then shot him with a stolen gun, according to court testimony.
Mobley confessed to the murder after his arrest following a high-speed police chase through Atlanta. He also was accused of holding up six other restaurants and dry cleaners during a three-week 1991 crime spree.
(Sources: Reuters, 01/03/2005)